Patriots cant get by old nemesis

Published 10:34 am, Monday, April 25, 2016

FLUSHING  Unionville-Sebewaing Area didn't need to play a perfect game here Tuesday afternoon.

By MIKE BOGAN

FLUSHING  Unionville-Sebewaing Area didn't need to play a perfect game here Tuesday afternoon.

But the Patriots needed to play better than they did.

No. 2-ranked Saginaw Nouvel took advantage of a couple of USA miscues on offense and defense, sprinkled in two big run-producing innings, and then held off a late charge from the Patriots in a 10-6 Division 3 state quarterfinals victory. The 30-10-1 Panthers advance to Friday's state semifinal game in Battle Creek to take on 21-9 Beaverton.

The Patriots, who for the second straight season see their campaign end in the quarterfinals, finish 23-10.

"We really put ourselves in a bind," said USA coach Jason Beagle. "We made some defensive mistakes, some base running errors. We struggled with control on the mound. We basically put ourselves in a hole.

"We told the kids coming in that at this level we couldn't play that way. Good teams are going to capitalize on those mistakes."

Despite all of that, USA still had one shot at the Panthers in the seventh inning, loading the bases and bringing the tying run to the plate. But Nouvel's Ryan Palmer came on and got the final three outs, including a pair of whiffs and a pop up to the catcher to end the game.

It's the second consecutive sports season the Panthers have ended USA's state title hopes. Nouvel also beat the Patriots in the regional finals in basketball. "My hat's off to USA  we played them a month or so ago and they are a totally different team," said Nouvel coach Tim Smith. "They are full of athletes and they showed it today."

USA actually led 3-1 after one inning, but saw Nouvel come back with four runs of its own in the second stanza, taking a 5-3 edge. The Panthers were helped when USA starter Matias Kraynak walked the bases loaded. Kyle Henris, Matthew Klenk and Tim Ryan followed with run-scoring hits.

"I went out to talk to (Matias) and he said, "I am trying to throw it right over the middle of the plate and I just can't,'" Beagle said. "You feel for the kid. You know he's out there doing everything he can. But sometimes, it's just not your day. He felt good. He felt loose. He just couldn't find a rhythm."

Nouvel broke it open in the fourth with five runs on just two hits. A couple of walks, a bloop single, a sacrifice fly and then a three-run double from Andrew Shooltz made it 10-3.

"Offensively, we've been putting up eight or 10 runs all year," Smith said. "I wasn't surprised by our run production. I knew we would score. And we needed all of them."

As it turned out, he was right.

USA pulled to within 10-6 on a three-run homer from Heath Schmidt in the fourth. "When we got down 10-3 we knew we still had four more at-bats," Beagle said. "We just kept telling them, 'Hey, two runs an inning. We don't have to get them all back at once.' We needed to get base runners and make their pitcher work out of the stretch.

"That (home run) was a huge lift. It was a clutch hit that kind of got our momentum going again."

USA, though, could muster just two hits the rest of the way. The Patriots put two men on in the seventh via a single from Lance VanHoost and an error on the Nouvel shortstop. At that point, Palmer came on and got a pair of strikeouts before hitting Tyson Valentine to load the bases. He then got a pop out to end the game.

"That's kind of how it went today," Beagle said. "I thought our kids had some pretty good swings, but in baseball if you're an inch under or an inch over, it's a drastically different result."

USA hurt itself with a couple of base running blunders in key situations early on.

"We had base runners on almost every inning and I thought we had some good at-bats," Beagle said. "When you put yourself in those situations you can't run yourself out of them. Despite that, I felt we were still in the game to the end."

USA took its 3-1 lead with five hits in the opening inning, including doubles from Schmidt, VanHoost and Mitch Keyes. Cody McGinnis also added a run-scoring infield single.

Beagle and his crew were disappointed with the loss, though know they had another fine year.

"Any time you get to the quarterfinals twice in a row, you know you've had two pretty good seasons," he said. "We're proud of that, but I think these kids came in wanting more than just another trip to the quarters. It gets frustrating to get that close.

"But I know these kids. They will work hard all year to get back here."